Becoming a kitchen fitter?

A course??

What do you want to learn?

Part P's introduction next year will make the electrical side of things a little dodgy.

With quickfit these days, plumbing is a doddle.

That only leaves making cupboards and sticking 'em in place!

Easy!

Spose you have got worktops to consider - Buy a jig and some offcuts and practise a bit. Read up Sean's thread on this forum for all the "must not dos". Bingo!

Just bear in mind that most people want their kitchens done in a hurry. You may need to recruit some part time helpers until you get up to pace.

Tango

 

Only become a kitchen fitter myself in the last 12 months.

Here's some advice from my experience:

1) Find a couple of local independent kitchen suppliers and use them for leads. In my case I found that becoming proficient in the worktops is good in that the kitchen suppliers value you and the customer often asks you to fit the whole kitchen after you go and price the worktops.

2) Get yourself a good sparks, corgi & plasterer to work with.

3) Get up to speed on building regs. You need a background knowledge of the sparks, corgi & plastering side to manage the project effeciently. You can't just duct the extractor to the nearest outside wall if its within 60cm of the boundary etc.

4) Buy best quality kit and empty your van at night.

5) If the job has a nasty niff when you visit, it will stink when you try and do it - be prepared to walk away.

6) Don't panic when you've got a few slack days, enjoy them.

Hope all that helps.

I'm now doing what I'd call "total refits", rewires, replumb, replaster. I charge for my project management time and the sparks corgi & spread keep me in beer.

Be honest and transparent with your clients.
Never leave a client without a sink and microwave for more than one evening.

A good (successful) fitter is a design consultant, project manager, accountant. Remember the "designers / sales side" are compensated by how many units they can cram in a small room. Don't be afraid to challenge the design.

Good luck, take lots of photos and leave a few cards with every client.

 

Invest in a good Laser Level and decent Drills/screwdrivers, expensive Jigsaws, not the cheaper ranges----------Dont get involved in fitting cheap **** kitchens, you will only be giving YOURSELF the head aches. Get the punter to buy their kitchen, so you dont have to put out your money and risk it becoming faulty and not get paid. Dont drop your price, let some other turkey work for nothing.